Falls women sent to jail for assaulting Tim Hortons

Sept. 11—LOCKPORT — Elizabeth Arvelo came to Niagara District Court Tuesday morning with a fairly simple request.

“Today I just want justice,” Arvelo told District Judge Caroline Wojtaszek.

And then Arvelo looked at Brittny Robinson and Brionna Harris, the two Falls women who admitted to brutally beating her in a Tim Hortons restaurant on the corner of Pine Avenue and Hyde Park Boulevard in May 2023: “And I would like to see them behind bars.”

Robinson, 38, and Harris, 31, will spend the next two years in state prison and then another year and a half on probation for pleading guilty to a single count of attempted second-degree burglary. The guilty plea was part of a deal with Niagara County prosecutors, who said they took into account the women's lack of criminal records and strong involvement in their communities when deciding to spare them a trial on second-degree gang violence charges.

If convicted, this charge, a Class C felony, could have brought them up to 15 years in prison.

“Sentencing is about consequences,” said Assistant District Attorney David DeChellis. “They could have made better choices. They could have been a role model (for their children who witnessed the attack on Arvelo). They could have acted like adults.”

Arvelo, 43, was working as a manager at the coffee shop on the evening of May 28, 2023, when a group of teenagers entered her business to order “drinks.” The store’s policy was not to allow anyone under the age of 18 into the store without an adult chaperone.

However, since it was a “slow day” for business, Arvelo decided to serve the teenagers. She said she quickly regretted that decision.

“They got loud and I told them to leave,” Arvelo said.

When the teens left the store, Arvelo said, confirming surveillance video in the case, they continued to cause a disturbance. Arvelo called her district manager, who called Falls Police.

It was too late.

“I was attacked by five or six people,” Arvelo said. “I was just doing my job and I was attacked.”

The incident was captured on video by ten cameras inside and outside the cafe, as well as on cell phone video and later posted on social media.

Cellphone video shows a white SUV pulling into the store's parking lot. A female driver can be seen getting out of the SUV and running into the cafe, followed by several other adults and teens.

Inside the store, recorded video shows Robinson, Harris and an underage female walking behind the counter into a roped off area of ​​the store. Robinson, Harris and the underage female approach Arvelo, who was standing near a drive-thru window.

“What I saw on the video was brutal,” Wojtaszek said. “(Prosecutors) didn't even have to offer a confession. The incident was recorded on tape. (By offering a confession) mercy was shown.”

The judge said she watched the video multiple times. She said she saw Robinson and Harris punching Arvelo, throwing her to the ground and continuing to punch her after she fell.

As Arvelo lay on the ground, Wojtaszek said, the video showed the underage woman picking up “a Tim Horton's drink” and “smashing it over (the coffee shop manager's) beaten body. There is no place for that in a civilized society.”

Wojtaszek also told a crowd of nearly three dozen Robinson and Harris supporters that the video from the store “showed teenagers cheering and laughing (at the attack) as if it were entertainment.”

“There is a price to pay for this behavior,” said Wojtaszek.

After the attack, Arvelo spent three days in the intensive care unit at Erie County Medical Center. She suffered numerous medical complications, including a brain hemorrhage, and was unable to work for five months.

Arvelo has returned to another location and now works as a manager at Tim Hortin, but she said she is scared and fears another attack.

“There are only two people here. There are still four people walking around who attacked me,” she said.

In emotional remarks before their sentencing, both Robinson and Harris expressed their remorse.

“I just apologize. I'm so sorry,” Harris said. “Those five minutes, that's not me.”

At one point in her testimony, Harris began to sob and then shake, eventually collapsing in her chair at the defense table. Robinson also fell forward on her table, waving her arms.

“I just want to say I'm sorry to the victim,” she said. “I know I did wrong. I hope someone can forgive me. I'm not a violent person. I don't go around hurting others.”

In addition to their prison and probation sentences, Robinson and Harris were given protection orders that expire in 2036.

The status of charges filed in Niagara County Family Court against a 13-year-old girl involved in the Arvelo robbery could not be immediately determined. The girl, whose identity was not released in accordance with New York's age-of-injury law, was charged with second-degree gang assault.